


what if/i'll never know

by captandor



Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-09
Updated: 2016-04-09
Packaged: 2018-06-01 05:45:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6503329
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/captandor/pseuds/captandor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Unbeta'd. Prompt: You are my favorite "what if"/You are my best "I'll never know"</p><p>(Set during 'unfinished business' - includes violence, because boxing, and a swear or two. also, in my heart it's related to the prompt but readers may need to squint, sorry!)</p>
            </blockquote>





	what if/i'll never know

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tigriswolf](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tigriswolf/gifts).



The first time her fist connected with his jaw, he realized who he was facing. This wasn't the Kara who'd come back from space, from New Caprica, from the brink. This was Starbuck - his fuck up, ace Viper jock and best friend. The woman he wanted but wouldn't allow himself to have. She was all fire and brimstone with none of the guilt, and she had boxing gloves and a deadly mask on just now.

So he did the only thing he knew how - when sparring with this woman - he hit back. There were times when Lee thought the fight, the dance, would never end, that this limbo of theirs was the final, physical manifestation of the tip-toeing they'd been doing around each other for years. Since before Zak died, since she first opened that door and then kissed him on a table.

He's light on his toes in the ring, not as savage as her, not as fast, not as personal, but far more intimate. Every time he hits her - just below her left ribcage this time - he tells himself it's better than not touching her at all, and the smile she gives him after a particularly good upper cut lands him falling back two feet tells him she feels the same.

They'll lick their wounds tonight, after all the fight is out of them, Sam and Dee will help them bandage cuts and their bruises will eventually fade, but the feeling of touch, the ability to touch each other freely for an hour in the ring... That will last, they both know it.


End file.
